r. So San Domingo, Santiago, and
Porto Pravda were all burnt to the ground before the fleet bore away for
the West Indies.

San Domingo in Hispaniola (Hayti) was made in due course, but only after
a virulent epidemic had seriously thinned the ranks. San Domingo was the
oldest town in New Spain and was strongly garrisoned and fortified. But
Carleill's soldiers carried all before them. Drake battered down the
seaward walls. The Spaniards abandoned the citadel at night, and the
English took the whole place as a New Year's gift for 1586. But again
there was no treasure. The Spaniards had killed off the Caribs in war or
in the mines, so that nothing was now dug out. Moreover the citizens
were quite on their guard against adventurers and ready to hide what
they had in the most inaccessible places. Drake then put the town up to
ransom and sent out his own Maroon boy servant to bring in the message
from the Spanish officer proposing terms. This Spaniard, hating all
Maroons, ran his lance through the boy and cantered away. The boy came
back with the last ounce of his strength and fell dead at Drake's feet.
Drake sent to say he would hang two Spaniards every day if the murderer
was not hanged by his own compatriots. As no one came he began with two
friars. Then the Spaniards brought in the offender and hanged him in the
presence of both armies.

That episode cleared the air; and an interchange of courtesies and
hospitalities immediately followed. But no business was done. Drake
therefore began to burn the town bit by bit till twenty-five thousand
ducats were paid. It was very little for the capital. But the men picked
up a good deal of loot in the process and vented their ultra-Protestant
zeal on all the 'graven images' that were not worth keeping for sale.
On the whole the English were well satisfied. They had taken all the
Spanish ships and armament they wanted, destroyed the rest, liberated
over a hundred brawny galley-slaves--some Turks among them--all anxious
for revenge, and had struck a blow at Spanish prestige which echoed back
to Europe. Spain never hid her light under a bushel; and here, in the
Governor's Palace, was a huge escutcheon with a horse standing on the
earth and pawing at the sky. The motto blazoned on it was to the effect
that the earth itself was not enough for Spain--_Non sufficit orbis._
Drake's humor was greatly tickled, and he and his officers kept asking
the Spaniards to translate the motto again and